After the latest rainstorm I knew it to be clear for at least 2 days. Zero percent chance of rain. Shocking.
So I got up at 5:30 AM to start hiking. The trail was a complicated double hitchhike of over 10 miles away. It was early Saturday morning in rural Maine. Not good odds. O I started walking for something to do. I walked for about 45 minutes and only 4 cars passed, none of which stopped. Then, finally a car stopped. It was a hostel owner taking Spoon to the trail. I hadn’t seen him in a few days. Suddenly a double hitch was made a quick direct and free ride to the trail. Spoon and I hiked the day together and talked much about God’s providence. A series of events were in order such that he ended up driving by the road I was on at such an odd time. I felt God was certainly looking out for me.
David “AWOL” Miller has just walked into the room! An AT celebrity is in the hotel dinning room! He’s the author of the guide book. He also has a popular book about his own hike.
Anyways. Back to me. :-). God is certainly looking out for me. Over and over on the trail the most amazing conditions have played out for me to be safe. This hike is very dangerous. As part of the 20% that make it this far I’m glad to have gone injury free.
Spoon (a 57 year old retired postman from St. Paul, MN) hike the last two days together. We crossed Bigelow mountain and the 2000 mile point. We stayed on a beach on Flagstaff lake last night with Hermes, and Silver & Calamity who I hadn’t seen since Virginia. The sun set directly in front of us. Before falling asleep exhausted from our 20 mile day, I read some of a book on the Island Kerguelen (also known as the Island of Desolation) in the southern Indian Ocean. My brother and I like remote places. When he was off Helgoland I commented he was not remote enough. Next to remote Flagstaff Lake I was reading about the most remote place in the world, a thousand miles from anything.
We woke up early today hearing the waves crashing on the beach. (The lake is big enough to have waves unlike most of the rest which they call ponds) We had to get to the Kennebec river by 4 pm, the last canoe ferry. It turned out the trail was mostly nice and we made it early. We found beer trail magic a mile before the river and promptly decided to drink it rather than carry. We got to Caratunk and got a room and a dinner. It’s 7 and I’m thinking of going to sleep. I’ve got to check for packages at the Post Office in the morning and start hiking again. We’ve got to make miles tomorrow for the next comes rain.
One last joke. At dinner I say to Spoon “You know you’re a thruhiker when the hot waitress walks by and you stare at the food she’s carrying.”
-Banzai!!!
